When you search Norway prisons on the internet, you may be surprised because the look of the prisons is not like most prisons. The cells look comfortable with a bed, chair, desk and some other stuff and even the cells have a window. The cells look like a boarding house. Why are Norway prisons so nice like this? Here is the explanation for this.
Norway Prisons Focus on Rehabilitation Than Punishment
Norway prisons focus on rehabilitation of prisoners so that they use an approach called restorative justice which is an approach that identifies prisons in the same category as rehabilitation facilities. So, this country uses a system of small, community-based correctional facilities. There are a lot of prisons in this country and the purpose is to make inmates close with their homes which means that they are able to maintain their relationship with their family and friends. A lot of facilities allow inmates to be visited three times a week. By being able to be visited often by their family and friends, it is expected that inmates can have a strong support system after they are released from the prison.
Prisons in Norway pay attention to the humanity of the inmates where inmates only lose their freedom, but they do not lose their rights. So, in Norway, inmates still have the right to attend school, vote, learn new skills, exercise, meet their family and some other activities.
Inmates in Halden, for example, live in a cell which is like a dorm room with some stuff such as bed, chair, table, a flat TV, toilet, shower and even fridge and they also have access to kitchens and common areas.
By treating inmates like this, they believe that inmates can reentry into society easier. As a result, inmates who are released will feel confident, have skills, and have self-respect so that they are able to be a good contributor for communities.
Arne Wilson, Bastoy prison governor who is also a clinical psychologist, says that losing freedom is a punishment and if inmates are treated like animals, they will tend to act like animals so that inmates in Norway are treated like human beings.
Compared to AS, Norway uses a punishment approach which is lighter and has a focus to make inmates go back to the community well and make sure that they do not get into prisons again. In 2007, there was a report that if inmates are incarcerated strictly, it can increase offender recidivism.
Some inmates in Norway say that they thought they only could sell drugs after they were released. However, after they learn some new skills in the facility, they realize that they are able to master some skills which can help them to get a legal job after they are released.
There is No Life Sentences
In the 1990s, Norway’s criminal reform laws reorganized the prisons and also the way inmates are sentenced where life sentences were removed and it was changed to maximum 21-year sentences. Because of this rule, Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011, was only sentenced to 21 years. And then, Norway changed the penal code to be able to give 30-year maximum sentences for certain crimes such as crimes against humanity, genocide and some other war crimes.
People Support Norway Prisons
The rules that are applied by Norway prisons are supported by people in the country. People in Norway believe that a prison should be a place for inmates to help them to be able to be successful after they are released. If inmates are punished badly without having a goal to make them better when they are in the community after they are released, it can only make their life more difficult and the chance to make them go back to prisons may be bigger.
Is The Thing Done by Norway Prisons Effective?
The efforts that have been done by Norway work well. It gives a positive impact on the rate of crime and its economy in the country. In the world, Norway has one of the lowest recidivism rates where it is only 20% of Norway’s formerly incarcerated people who commit another crime in 2 years after release. In addition, in the past several years, the number of people who are incarcerated has reduced.
What’s the positive effect of the Norway prisons’ rules on the economy? As explained earlier, the number of people who are incarcerated has been reduced. It means that there are more people who live outside prisons which means that more people have the ability to work. A lot of inmates who are released from prisons in Norway can work after they are released because in prisons, they are not only rehabilitated emotionally and morally, but they are also trained for having some skills which are beneficial for their life after release.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
